


fade out

by tackeart



Category: Parahumans Series - Wildbow
Genre: Alternate Universe - BioShock, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Horror
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-27
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-19 03:22:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29744235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tackeart/pseuds/tackeart
Summary: Biotinkered nightmares menace over an Earth Bet still reaching for the stars. Defiant, maimed and disgraced, seeks redemption the only way she can.
Relationships: Dragon/Colin Wallis | Armsmaster | Defiant
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9





	fade out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> choking the clouds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> massive thanks to Cauldron, especially Juff, TheSleepingKnight, GIles, Fishtail, and whoever else; this wouldn't have existed without any of you.  
> (expect slow updates.)

Brilliant streaks scored the night. 

There were dozens trailing fire across the sky. She watched them arc, helplessly spinning, burning the city around her. 

Death’s light touched her eyes.

Alex startled awake, flailing against the shockwaves. She couldn’t breathe. The thermal flash raked its claws down her throat. No— cool air, conditioned to a fault. The paradox shorted her panic, throbbing pain emerging from the receding fog.

I’m restrained, Alex thought. Why? 

Her head was heavy, angled towards the dark hospital ceiling. Her flailing limbs were strangely placid before she’d calmed. 

Could she even feel them? 

Oh.

Memory came rushing back. 

☽

She’d failed. The Nine raged across her trap.

Screams echoed around them, rattling her armour with their fury. An independent flew past her in a haze of embers, trailing ash as orb-traps went off. Too many around when the comms were cut. This was a massacre.

The Reeve stood opposite, three puppets poised— New Wave’s Fleur, silent and pale, started weaving another field of snares. She hoped they’d forget this. A forcefield sprung up from his second seized, another New Wave member. Alex put it out of mind. 

Time to fix this. 

Her steps echoed with algorithmic rhythm. Through Fleur's traps, through the barrier _here_ , grav-lance ready to strike the master—

Ready to crumple on striped claws, ripping forth from the third puppet’s shadows. 

☽

Her arm. Her team. Gone, gone, gone. An alarm screamed somewhere beyond her rage, but it wouldn’t let go. Replacement schematics and assistive mechanisms seared her mind, clearer than anything, but she couldn’t get at them. Like smoke, gone as fingers stirred it into nothing. 

A hiss extinguished the alarm. Her returned fit dissolved with unnatural speed. Everything faded.

Except a woman’s voice, familiar and longing, as she slid into the dark. 

_“I’m sorry, Defiant.”_

She was thrown back an hour later, gasping and panting. 

☽ 

Alex barely remembered the trial. They didn’t wean her off the meds fast enough. Shock handled the rest. 

(Her eyes burn, and Dragon ignores the lie.)

☽ 

—found the Protectorate h—

(you’re not one.)

—Defiant guilty on counts of—

(You lost the right ages ago.)

—manslaughter, felony mur—

(What you did to your team? Their screams, when your little magic trick broke their comms?)

—testimony from trusted officers, Protectorate members, Guild—

(They _trusted_ you.)

—human carnage, challenging the newly-forged agreements holding our society in check—

(You set this fire.)

—the decision of this court— 

—Baumann—

(Choke on the ash.)

☽ 

No restraints in her cell. (No prizes for guessing why.)

She’d seen a red flag while the crane transferred her. Stopping past the border meant something was wrong, but it wasn’t her problem anymore. She’d shut down during the drive, not thinking, not speaking. Wallowing in herself.

Her audience didn’t care. 

☽

_Alex._

_Alex, please talk to me._

_I see your pulse. How you react. You’re forcing yourself to not respond. Don’t do this to yourself._

_Alex, this is important._

(She’d go away after dark.)

(…)

_Do you remember Montreal? Our first joint mission, with the smugglers. We staked out until morning, all drones and screens. You kept me awake. We counted moon lights, saw if we could see the cities with our scopes. You told me stories about college. That farm-tech guy flipping out when you rejected him. We got a match before you could finish. I never got the chance to ask._

_That whole night feels like a dream now._

_I miss being like that._

_I can’t stay. I’m— sorry. Goodnight, Alex._

☽

She lay awake, staring through the cell window.

The moon was on fire. 

  
  
  



End file.
